1. Field of the Invention
The present invention pertains to a data communication device, a data communication method, a data communication program and a computer-readable recording medium storing the above program (hereinafter collectively referred to as the ‘data communication device, etc.’), and more particularly, to a data communication device, etc. that can send reply to recipients designated as ‘BCC’.
2. Description of the Related Art
A broadcast transmission service in which copies of one e-mail are sent to multiple e-mail addresses is known, and the recipient can send a reply e-mail to such broadcast-transmitted e-mail. In addition, Japanese Laid-Open Patent Application 2000-330882 discloses a technology for handling e-mails and reply e-mails that comprises an apparatus that can manage sent e-mails and reply e-mails thereto while mutually associating them.
However, an e-mail address that is designated as ‘BCC’ (blind carbon copy) can be included in the multiple e-mail addresses to which an e-mail is sent via broadcast transmission. Where an e-mail address is designated as ‘BCC’, an e-mail having the same contents as the e-mail sent to the main recipient (‘To’) is sent to the e-mail address designated as ‘BCC’ without its existence being known to the other e-mail addresses, i.e., the other recipients of the broadcast-transmitted e-mail. Where an e-mail is sent via broadcast transmission to multiple e-mail addresses that include an e-mail address designated as ‘BCC’, the existence of the e-mail address designated as ‘BCC’ is not made known to the other e-mail addresses to which the broadcast-transmitted e-mail was sent. Therefore, where a reply e-mail to the broadcast-transmitted e-mail is sent from one of the multiple e-mail addresses (broadcast transmission recipients), it cannot be sent to the e-mail address designated as ‘BCC’ for the broadcast transmission.
Furthermore, multi-function peripheral apparatuses that have come into practical use in recent years can send, as an image file attached to an e-mail, image data that is obtained by reading an original document using a scanner. Therefore, when an e-mail is sent to multiple e-mail addresses via broadcast transmission by this multi-function peripheral apparatus, a reply e-mail cannot be returned to the e-mail address that was designated as ‘BCC’ for the broadcast transmission, as in the case described above.